An interdisciplinary unmanned aerial vehicles course with practical applications

This paper presents a basic course to teach the basic concepts and applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to undergraduate students. Using the design thinking methodology, the objective is to design and implement a UAV to solve a real problem. This course intends to match engineering and business by designing UAVs for significant applications. This proposal aims to initiate the students into basic concepts of aeronautics, mechatronics and human — centered design. First, students learn about current UAVs applications worldwide and they are introduced to the methodology of design thinking in order to properly design solutions with UAVs for real problems in the national context of Peru. Then, students acquire basic theoretical and practical knowledge on aerodynamics, mechanics, electronics and sensors, systems integration, basic control algorithms and programming to design, implement and test a UAV. This course encourages students to interact as an interdisciplinary team, think outside the box and design to solve problems that affect Peru and the entire world. The participants are evaluated before and after the course to determine how their knowledge about UAVs and design thinking has changed.